As His Wife
And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife. -Matthew 1:24 (well, I thought it was appropriate-can you draw the parallels?!)
Prompt: Firewhisky
It took him long enough, she thought to herself.
It took him long enough to return, it took him long enough to take her back completely.
He returned back in October, a week after full moon. With his face turned down, he said "I'm not that man. I'm not leaving you to look after this monster by yourself. I'll help. But that's all I can promise."
For nearly two months, two months, they lived like that. He slept in the box room, no matter how many times she tried to persuade him that she could morph into someone smaller and she would fit better. He said, eyes down, it would not be good for the baby. She couldn't count the number of times she had asked, no, begged him to come back to her bed, but he simply answered "I told you Tonks, no." And as the new year, and the new addition, approached, she began to lose all hope.
She stared at the tree. She had decorated it herself, without his help. At the bottom was a small pile of presents. From her mother, Bill and Fleur, the other Weasleys, Kingsley. But nothing from Remus. Nothing to Remus. For this tree, he did not exist.
She refused to cry. Bored, with him gone, she had done her eye makeup perfectly this morning. Instead of allowing tears, she went to the larder. On the bottom shelf was the old bottle of golden liquid. She grabbed a glass and poured it. She downed it in one gulp, then sat back on the sofa. She waited a few moments, staring into space.
"Merry Christmas Dora," she said and poured herself another glass. Inside her stomach, the child kicked. "Don't you start." she said to it. "I'm not interested."
She drained the second glass and shut her eyes.
How long she sat there she didn't know, but when she opened her eyes again everything was slightly blurred. Perhaps she could blur away the world, she thought. She shakily poured another glass and brought it to her lips.
"No." said a firm voice, and she felt a grip on her wrist. "Have you any idea how bad that stuff is for the child?"
"Remus?" she asked, unable to believe her shaken vision.
"Yes." he said.
"What do you care?" she asked. "What do you care about the child, about me, about any of it? Hmm? You couldn't give a-"
"You're my family, of course I care." he said.
"Oh, don't start this again." she said. "Every time you get my hopes up and then you dash them again. I know what you're going to say Remus. How you care, but you can't do more than that. Well you can do more, you can sod off. I don't want a husband who's not able to love me, not even for the sake of his unborn child."
"Dora," he sighed, removed the bottle and glass from her hands and put his fingers in their place. "That's just it. I do love you. It's taken a while for me to admit to it, but it's true. Marrying you was the right thing to do. I know it was. I know that now."
"You're lying to stop me drinking."
"I swear on the grave of Dumbledore this is the truth."
"I still think you're lying."
He kissed her, gently, for the first time in nearly six months.
"Who have you been talking to?" she asked, but really, she's lost already. In the sound of his soft, thoughtful voice, the uneven touch of his hands, the taste of his lips.
"My inner self, my conscience, my alter ego," he said. "I don't know. Somebody. Somebody who says that wolves mate for life. Did you know that?"
"Do Remus Lupins mate for life?" she asked.
"Well, do Dora Tonks's?" he asked.
She bit her lip. "I'd say, they think about it first. After all, they wouldn't like ending up married to someone they didn't love. So now, for tonight, you are temporarily forgiven. We can talk in the morning when I'm not so drunk and I'm sure I'm not just dreaming this."
But somewhere deep down, she knows that her mate for life and not the Firewhisky, will keep her warm from now on.
Please take an average of, ooh 27 seconds to leave me a review, and I will make you a gingerbread house (honestly, it's on The Afternoon Show 3.00). Next, Lily!